


Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees

by LessonsFromMoths



Series: Sterek All The Time (lots of one shots) [21]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: AU, Again, Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Alternate Universe - Snow White Fusion, But I'm Having a Great Time, Derek is...confused?, Dwarves Aren't All Men, Fairy Tale Retellings, Fractured Fairy Tale, Full Shift Werewolves, Huntsman Derek, I'm Not Ashamed, It's Not Really Relevant, Literally no sex, M/M, No Smut, Not Beta Read, One Shot, Seven Dwarves - Freeform, Snow White Elements, Stiles and the Seven Dwarves, Stiles can talk to animals, Stiles is Snow White, The Pack are the Seven Dwarves, What Was I Thinking?, fairytales - Freeform, too many tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-06-16 11:10:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15435777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LessonsFromMoths/pseuds/LessonsFromMoths
Summary: The boy snorted. It was an ugly sound. Not one you would expect from a...princess? “Well obviously the fairytale didn't get everything right.”Obviously. Derek’s eyes trailed over the slender boy. Rose-red lips, pink-tainted cheeks, slender frame, skin as white as snow. The fairytale got enough right. “And your dwarves?”The boy outright laughed then. “Less like dwarves, more like nuisances.”In which Stiles is Snow White, Derek is confused, and fairy tales aren't all that they cracked up  to be.





	Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from "Teddy Bear's Picnic" (because that song haunts my dreams and this is a weak attempt to stop it)  
> Yesterday I challenged myself to finally sit the hell down and write something all in one go. I got tired halfway through, but finished the rest today.  
> I literally have like 12 stories started bc I'm annoying like that.  
> Anyways, this doesn't take place in any particular time period, so the wording is all pretty modern.  
> Not beta'd, sorry for mistakes!
> 
> Enjoy!

Stiles never asked to be the main character in a fairytale, it just sort of happened. It’s not like you can pick your role in the universe. You’re just born into it, and you have to deal with whatever the hell that role decides to throw at you. When Stiles was born, his mother was a queen, his father a king. Before his birth, his mother wished for him to be fair and kind, and the universe responded by giving him skin as white as snow and lips as red as a rose. His mother, desperate to keep him safe from dark entities, always wrapped him in a dark cloth as a baby, and from the rumors that spread in the kingdom (along with his mother’s insistence of calling him ‘Snow’) he became Snow White, and his fairy tale was born.

When his mother died, his father remarried a woman who was neither as kind nor as beautiful as his mother. Stiles, a ripe ten years old at the time, recognized her as the supposed antagonist of his fairy tale. Her name was Jen, and although she wasn’t as kind or as beautiful as his mother, she was still incredibly kind, and incredibly beautiful. She, too, understood her role, and once his father died not long after their marriage (as it goes with stepmothers), she called Stiles into the empty throne room, alone. 

“My child,” she began softly, “the world has decided for your tale to begin. Although I am not your mother, I love you as if I could be. I think you and I both know what is expected of us, but I have a plan.”

Stiles had recognized the glint in her eyes as if it was his own. Mischief. Together, they perfected the plan of his fairy tale. With help from mother nature and the forces that harmonized with the universe, they were able to spread the story of “Snow White.” A young maiden, thrown out and hunted by her evil stepmother, who found seven little dwarves in the forest to aid her in her mission for happily ever after. Add a poisoned apple here, a hunter cutting out a fake heart there, and a little jealousy, and suddenly you have the perfect fairytale. The last rumors of Snow White were that she was living with her prince, who had awoken her from her deep sleep, in the middle of the woods, ready to live out their happily ever after. 

With the story done and over with, most people lost interest, and Jen continued to rule the kingdom while Stiles decided to shack up with his seven dwarves in the woods. So far, it was going pretty well.

 

“Give me back my hat!” Jackson shouted, following Isaac throughout the small house.

“Come and get it!” Isaac yelled back, smiling wide. He was sitting on the top of the kitchen cabinets, a place where he knew Jackson couldn’t get on top of.

“I think your dwarf name should’ve been Awful,” Jackson pouted, sticking his bottom lip out.

“Oh yeah? Well the universe can’t be too bad at naming us, since Grumpy suits you just fine!” 

“Guys! Oh my god, how old are you, ten!?” Stiles implored, plucking Jackson’s hat from Isaac’s small hands and handing it back to its rightful owner. Jackson smirked and tugged his hat back on his head, grunting as he moved into another room. 

The question wasn’t too far off. While dwarves lived almost twice as long as humans, they all looked like small children for their entire lives. Dwarves were born from the rocks in the mines (so there weren’t any weird child-born-from-child moments, which was a blessing), and when they were born they received a hat that had their name from the universe ingrained on it. They could also choose their real names if they so desired. Jackson happened to be Grumpy, but he preferred Jackson. 

“God, I swear I’m the only adult around here,” Stiles groaned, throwing some plates that were left out into the sink.

“Oh, stop whining, won’t you? How about you sweep and sing a song to your birdie friends out in the woods?” Erica, aka Flirty, nagged, her little button nose turned up at Stiles despite the fact that she was three and a half feet tall. 

“Shut it, shorty. I don’t even know how the villagers come up with some of that shit,” he sighed, deciding to wash the dishes now rather than later. “Snow White does not live in a house with seven tiny men just to cook and clean for them and make friends with all of the woodland creatures,” he ranted. 

“To be fair, you _communicate with them,” Scott, aka Dopey, said sweetly from his spot at the stove._

__

“I have no clue why we added that to the damn fairy tale. It’s fluffy enough already,” Stiles muttered darkly. 

__

“A single woman living with seven old, tiny men? I wouldn’t call that fluffy,” a voice came drifting into the kitchen from the neighboring room, and Lydia (alias, Doc), joined her voice by the kitchen table. “It’s actually pretty creepy.”

__

“Oh, and a single man living with seven children is better?” Stiles huffed, only to be whacked behind the knee by yet _another_ dwarf. God, he hated it when they ganged up on him. 

__

“I resent that! I’m almost fifty!” Isaac yelled, pouting. 

__

“Yeah, and you sulk too much for someone called Sleepy,” Boyd chortled, earning a whack from Isaac. 

__

“Just because I refuse to let my universe-given name rule my personality doesn’t mean you have to be all sour about it!” Isaac humphed, and Boyd graced that statement by sticking his tongue out. 

__

“Oh my god, you guys! Please stop making me feel like your father!” Stiles begged.

__

“You’re more like our mother,” Allison smiled cheekily, grabbing some bowls from the cupboard. The name Happy suited her and her little dimples.

__

“I hate you all,” Stiles answered, collapsing into a chair at the dining table.

__

“Lies!” Isaac called him out, and Stiles sighed.

__

“I guess you’re right. I’d be pretty lonely here without you guys.” And it wasn’t like Stiles really had much of a choice. While it would be easy to return to the castle and rule alongside Jen, and it would be incredibly enjoyable too, people got unusually angry when you messed with fairy tales, or gave them unconventional twists and turns. Since Stiles had been born without a sister, the people of his parents’ kingdom had somehow conveniently forgotten that he had been a boy, and figured that the sweet princess Snow White would have a lovely fairy tale full of twists and turns before finally settling into a happy ending. If Stiles ever let any of them know that he was definitely a man and definitely not settled down with some prince from some other kingdom, they would be so angry about being “duped” that they would riot, even if they had been told that Stiles was a boy all along. 

__

Remember when Rose Beauty ran off with another princess instead of a prince after her wicked witch cursed her to cause the death of her first husband? No? Exactly. Her people had run her out of her own kingdom, and her fairy tale was scrapped from public record. Luckily, Rose didn’t have a problem with that. Stiles had heard all about it at her wedding, which was gorgeous, by the way. 

__

While Stiles didn’t exactly care about his mostly made-up fairy tale being forgotten forever, he knew that Jen was an exceptional ruler, and that it was better for her to rule than for her to be homeless, much like he was. If you called living in a cottage in the middle of the woods with seven child-like dwarves homeless. It really wasn’t that bad, but Stiles was still lonely sometimes. The dwarves had each other, always romping around and mining and living their simple, happy little dwarf lives. Humans were a bit more complex. They needed other humans as companions, or at least Stiles did. They needed more stimulation than settling disputes about stolen hats or talking about the different mined diamonds of the day. Or at least Stiles did. 

__

“Stiles!” One of the kiddies yelled, and it jerked Stiles out of his most recent daydream. One that had maybe been happening a bit too often. 

__

“Sorry,” he said, looking at the impatient faces around him. “What were you saying?”

__

“I was _asking,”_ Lydia began, “if you would please go pick some peaches for us. Boyd got the rest of the low-lying ones last week, and we need more if you want some of my peach cobbler.”

__

Well, you didn’t need to ask Stiles twice (after he finally heard you, of course). Lydia’s peach cobbler was almost to die for. Boyd, also known as Chesty, was the tallest of the bunch, but they were all still extremely tiny. Sometimes it weirded Stiles out how normal they talked despite looking so young. And to watch Lydia use the oven? Forget it.

__

“Gotcha. I’m on it!” 

__

“Don’t take too long, dinner’ll be done before sundown!” Scott yelled after him as Stiles threw their gathering basket over his shoulder. Sundown was a little less than an hour away, and the peach tree was only a ten minute stroll form the cottage. Honestly, what did they think he’d be doing that would take him so long? 

__

He took it easy, walking leisurely along the stream that made its way through the woods, enjoying its happy little trickling sound. He added in some whistling here and there. He would never dare sing, the dwarves would get too much pleasure teasing him about that, but whistling was just as entertaining. The peach tree was sitting right where it always was, waiting for its peaches to be plucked. A few rotten ones graced the ground and some squirrels were chomping down liberally on them. They didn’t even look up as Stiles approached, used to his footsteps and smell. 

__

They were too busy stuffing their faces to make conversation with, and besides, squirrels didn’t talk about much except their nuts, anyways. Especially in a wood that usually had a fairly unforgiving winter every year. Stiles stood on his toes and began picking the ripest-looking and most beautiful peaches, knowing that Lydia would chew him out if he gave her ones that she didn’t approve of. He had almost enough in his basket when he heard a loud rustling in the bushes. The squirrels were immediately alert and talking to each other.

__

_“Large. Large. Predator. C’mon!”_ They spoke in their fast, stilted language, and Stiles watched as the two squirrels made their way up a large tree a few feet away, scampering up high so as to have a good view of the action, whatever it may be. Stiles turned towards the direction of the noise, his fingers curling around the hilt of a dagger he had hidden away under the blanket in his basket, just in case. If it was a wolf or some other scary creature, it might try to attack. 

__

“Who goes there?” Stiles asked, his voice coming out braver than he anticipated. Then he stood there, silent and still, waiting to greet whatever might come out to eat him.

__

 

__

 

__

 

__

“There’ something so... _off_ about the whole thing,” Derek said as he and Laura walked through the middle of town, fending off smiling townspeople.

__

“What do you mean?” She had half of a baked baguette shoved into her mouth, and she slowed down to examine a bead merchant’s goods.

__

“I mean that it makes no sense! Who is jealous about someone being ‘the fairest in the land,’ and if Snow White got her happily ever after, why is Queen Jen still ruling the kingdom? Where is Snow White and her prince now? Don’t they have some kingdom or other to run?”

__

“You’re a little too interested in this place’s fairy tale for someone who’s just passing through with his sister,” Laura commented, leading them away from the jewelry.

__

“I just don’t understand how these people can be content with their happily ever after when it makes no sense.” He paused. “Wasn’t there a prince, at some point, too?”

__

Laura sighed. “Derek, we were born around the same time the fairy tale got its start. How the hell do you know all of this stuff?”

__

He shrugged. “I asked around.” 

__

“Ohh-kayy,” Laura drew the word out, dragging him to another merchant. 

__

“But the fairy tale never explains what happens to Snow White. Or the seven dwarves. Or the evil queen. Laura, something is very wrong in this kingdom.”

__

She turned to look her brother in the eye. “And what, you want to fix it? Derek, you can’t go trying to save every story you stumble across. Some just permanently have plot holes, and others don’t have an ending.”

__

Derek’s eyes grew slightly darker. “Every story has an ending.”

__

Laura was unaffected. “Jeez, I get it. But what do I have to do to make you let this go?”

__

Derek didn’t even think about it. “Well, the fairy tale says that they lived happily ever after in the woods together, right? I want to check out the woods. See if it checks out.”

__

Laura sighed, low and long-suffering. “Oh my god I hate you,” she grumbled, quickly buying some cloth from a nearby stand. “Okay! Fine. But we’d better go now so we can grab some dinner on the way. All of the deer and little bunnies will be burrowed in their safe little caves soon.”

__

“I hate it when you refer to them as bunnies,” Derek grumbled back, and the words immediately perked Laura up. 

__

“We’re going to feast on bunnies, we’re going to feast on bunnies,” she lightly sang as they made their way out of the center of town and towards the heavy woods that sat near the large, dark castle. 

__

Derek stayed silent as they pushed their way into the woods, and Laura continued to sing her song, adding a few new words to spice it up a bit. It wasn’t long before Laura spotted a lone deer grazing, and with one quick look at each other and a flash of her eyes, they changed into their wolves. Together, hunting as they usually did, they quietly circled the deer. It grazed unawares, and Derek flashed his eyes at Laura to let her know that the kill was hers. She lunged, and soon the deer was theirs. They feasted on it for a good ten minutes before deciding to leave the rest for some other lonely scavenger, and they continued on their way, not bothering to shift back. Being a wolf was usually easier.

__

It wasn’t long before they stumbled across a cottage in the middle of a tiny clearing, and Laura bumped her side against Derek’s. He pointedly looked at it to show that yes, he understood. He was getting ready to shift and knock on the door when he heard someone whistling a little further in the distance. Derek nudged Laura, who had already transformed, and she nodded. “I’ll check out the cottage, and you go ahead,” she said quietly. The unspoken ‘be careful’ sat heavy between them. Derek continued on, not looking back at his very capable sister, until he came to a stream and caught a scent. It was pleasant, and it mostly smelled like the woods themselves. But there was something incredibly enticing hiding beneath the exterior, and he immediately began to follow it. 

__

Derek followed it to a patch of trees, and the smell of rotting peaches accosted his nose. It wasn’t a particularly bad scent, just extremely sweet. He could hear someone humming a little, and could even hear the heartbeats of what sounded like rabbits. Derek took a few steps towards the sounds, accidentally running his fur too close to a bush. The sound made the humming stop immediately, and he listened as the rabbits ran off. Derek was contemplating his next move when a voice said, “Who goes there?”

__

He decided that being greeted by a man was probably better than being greeted by a wolf, and Derek quickly transformed. One great thing about the transformation was that the magic retained everything that was on his body before the transformation. Imagine if he had to worry about clothes every time! 

__

He stood, and pushed through a few trees before finally catching a glimpse of the humming person. They were dressed in yellow pants and a blue tunic, and holding up a knife in one hand and a basket of peaches with another, looking both soft and rough at the same time. It was a man, not much older than Derek, eyes large and round, nose upturned and mischievous. “Sorry to startle you. I’m Derek,” he said, looking straight into the young man’s eyes. 

__

“I...I’m--”

__

“Snow!” Someone from upstream yelled. “We have company! Pick some more peches!!”

__

“Okay!” The boy yelled back, then looked at Derek fully once again. “I’m Snow, but my friends call me Stiles.”

__

Derek stared at the boy in front of him, completely dumbstruck. “...You’re Snow White?” He’d heard the stories, the spin-offs. everything. Yet nothing had prepared him for... _this._

__

The boy held a wicked smile on his face. “What? Not what you were expecting?”

__

He was obviously enjoying this. Derek fumbled for a word--any word--to make him not sound stupid. “Your hair isn't the color of ebony,” was what popped out. Yeah, he was a real Aristotle. 

__

The boy snorted. It was an ugly sound. Not one you would expect from a...princess? “Well obviously the fairy tale didn't get everything right.” 

__

Obviously. Derek’s eyes trailed over the slender boy. Rose-red lips, pink-tainted cheeks, slender frame, skin as white as snow. The fairy tale got enough right. “And your dwarves?” 

__

The boy outright laughed then. “Less like dwarves, more like nuisances.” Derek found himself spitting out a laugh. “So what brings you to our woods, hunter?”

__

Derek smiled amusedly. “And why do you assume that I am a hunter?” 

__

Stiles shrugged. “You have a dagger at your side, a sword on your back, and a wooden shield hanging from your shoulder. You wear earthy tones, and I didn’t hear you approach until you were almost on top of me. If you are not a hunter, I’ll eat my shoe.” Stiles was definitely teasing with him now, smile widening as the minutes ticked by.

__

“I suppose I am a hunter, but I like to think of myself as more of a wanderer. I hail from a kingdom up north. My sister and I wander the lands, buying and selling merchandise and fixing broken kingdoms.” 

__

“Broken kingdoms, hmm? Well, the one here isn’t broken. You must have found yourselves bored.”

__

Derek looked at the young man oddly. “I am not so sure. Why is it that the crown prince is living in the woods, pretending to be a princess? Leaving is evil stepmother to rule the land?”

__

Stiles scoffed. “She is a good ruler. And I have no desire to be run out of my kingdom because my fairy tale doesn’t live up to the people’s expectations.”

__

Derek stopped his train of thoughts in their tracks as the statement reached his brain. He had heard of that, of people being shunned by their society or community because they challenged their fairy tale. He told Stiles as much.

__

“Yes, and if I had stayed to challenge it, Jen surely would have been run out with me, and god knows who would be ruling my kingdom right now!”

__

“How did you manage to get away?” Derek asked, and Stiles knew what he was actually asking. _How did you manage to escape destiny?_

__

“Jen and I, once we realized she was supposed to be the antagonist of Snow White’s tale, fabricated most of the story. Little bits of realness got out, such as me having pale skin, or red lips and cheeks. The black hair rumor began back when I was an infant, and my mother swaddled me in black cloth for outings. We didn’t go too outlandish. For example, there really are seven dwarves back at my cottage, but obviously, I’m not a girl. And they’re not all men. And the story we told allowed me to hide out here, among the company of dwarves and animals, until the end of time.”

__

Derek noticed the sadness in Stiles’s smile, and he was struck completely with how beautiful the sad, forest-dwelling prince looked. “It must be lonely,” he said softly.

__

The man shrugged, running his fingers lightly over a peach. “It is what it is.”

__

Derek reached up and picked a few peaches. “Well, I believe my sister is the guest one of your friends was talking about, which means, if it’s okay, that I will be joining you for dinner?”

__

Stiles smiled, the sadness dissipating a little. “Then I think you might have to pick a few more peaches.”

__

Derek did and placed them in Stiles’s basket before holding a hand out to him. “Lead me back to your cottage?”

__

Stiles reached out to him, taking his hand. The moment he did, Stiles and Derek both cried out in surprise, yanking their respective hands back. They were both on their knees, getting over their pain. Derek stared in shock as a mark appeared on his palm, looking like it had been burned into his skin. It looked like a star. Not the one that magicians sometimes had sewn onto their hats, but a _real_ star, elongated and with too many points to count. 

__

“What just happened?” Stiles asked, eyes on his own palm. It looked like the same thing was happening to him. 

__

“I...I don’t know,” Derek said, looking at the man. 

__

Stiles ran his hand over his palm, eyes widening in realization. “Oh my God “ he said. “I've seen this before. On Rose.”

__

“On who?” Derek asked, intrigued. 

__

“Princess Rose. She got this mark when she and her wife met. Derek….”

__

“What?”

__

Stiles looked up at him in utter awe, eyes wide and pretty mouth slightly agape. “We just reached Happily Ever After.” 

__

Derek sat there, stunned. “But...I thought only fairy tales could achieve that,” he said dumbly. 

__

“Yeah,” Stiles smiled widely, “And I’m apart of a fairy tale.”

__

“Oh,” Derek said, because he didn’t really know what else to say. “So what does that mean?”

__

Stiles suddenly looked shy. “It means that if you decide to stay, we can live happily ever after.”

__

Derek looked at Stiles, eyes wide. “We can?” 

__

“If you want. Do you?”

__

Derek nodded, crawling over to where Stiles was. He opened his palm and held it to Stiles’s, then gently reached up with his other hand to cup Stiles’s head. He leaned in, and Stiles went the rest of the way to finish their kiss. 

__

Whoa. If the rest of their happily ever after was anything like that kiss...well, then they were in for a real happy ending. 

__

 

__

(Later, when they finally got back to the cabin, Derek got hated on by the dwarves. If you counted being ganged up on by Laura plus _seven children_ being hated on. Which he did).

__

(Also, Laura gave him a self-satisfied smirk the entire night. What for, Derek didn’t know. It’s not like she knew he’d get a happily ever after. Unless…?)

__

(No. Derek refused to believe that Laura knew more than he did).

__

(Also Stiles and Derek traveled the lands, helping other fractured fairy tales achieve their fairy tale endings).

__

(And they lived happily ever after).

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The End

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**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it! Leave some love if you did :)


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